Every day, thousands of people from conflict zones risk their lives and the lives of their children to come to the European Union in hopes that they will find a safe haven. Citizens of the European Union are looking for answers from the European Union and member states. The only immediate answer is to provide help to the refugees with dignity.

However, the EU response is not adequate. The rules of the European Union, which in some other contexts have had some positive effects, now represent the problem in providing safe haven for the people fleeing from conflict. Mechanisms and institutes for the acceptance of refugees are crumbling or are not activated in an appropriate way, and by that are showing insufficiency in the fulfilment of judicial and moral obligations which the EU and its member states have regarding international humanitarian laws. Every day, it is getting more obvious that the European Union is not providing an answer to the questions that it is facing and the security of safe haven is getting more uncertain.

In dealing with this question, a radical turn is needed. Management of refugee corridors in a way that they promise relocations and transfer, and the situation where the migration corridors and borders are opened and then closed one by one in the hope that the refugees will stop coming when the trip becomes too dangerous and uncertain, simply cannot be the answer. There is no more doubt that what is going on is an international crisis with which the European Union cannot deal. The fact of the international humanitarian crisis requires the appropriate international law and judicial answers and proactive political action.

We call upon decision makers who will be deciding on the EU response to the refugee crisis to initiate more efficient and humane mechanisms for crisis management on the EU level – mechanisms which are available in the framework of EU acquis and international humanitarian law and human rights instruments.

Detailed National postion in shadow ia available in attachment.